Andy Karsner

Andy Karsner

Managing Partner, Emerson Collective

Andy Karsner is Managing Partner of Emerson Collective, Senior Strategist and Space Cowboy at X; and Precourt Energy Scholar at Stanford University. He champions the values of Emerson Collective to prioritize the needs of humanity in concert with nature.

His entrepreneurial leadership has been associated with both venture capital and private equity portfolios responsible for guidance and/or holdings in some of the most successful technology startups over the last ten years, including Nest (Internet of things), Tesla (mobility), Recurrent (solar), and Codexis (biotech). From 2005 to 2008, Karsner served as Assistant Secretary of Energy for Efficiency and Renewable Energy of the United States, managing the approximately $2 billion annual federal applied science, research and development portfolio. In this role he helped assemble significant bipartisan coalitions to implement or enact the Energy Policy Act, the Energy Independence and Security Act and the America Competes Act, all of which remain the foundation of comprehensive energy policy today. In diplomacy, Karsner was a principal climate negotiator of the "Bali Roadmap" and an original architect of the Major Economies Process.

Prior to public service, Karsner held several global leadership positions, including founder and CEO of Enercorp, a windpower development firm and international agent of Vestas, involved in project development, management and financing of energy infrastructure; director and senior development manager for Wartsila Power Development and other multinational energy and development firms. Karsner sits on several prominent boards including Applied Materials (Nasdaq: AMAT), Conservation International, The Gas Technology Institute, and the advisory board of MIT Medialab.